The One True Love
by Sanae
Summary: After Tohru finds himself in very big trouble, will Nao forgive him as usual or will she leave him forever?
1. Act 1

_Disclaimer: Initial D's not mine. _

A/N: I know I said I'd take a break but, after reading BoomChish's post in her forum "Initial D Other Canon Character development" about the fact that no one has thought of writing any Tohru/Nao fanfictions, it has made me want to try and write one considering that they really are the only functional couple in the whole storyline…

If you want, let me know what you think, in any case, thank you for spending some of your time reading this!

**The One True Love**

_Act 1. _

In his whole life, Tohru had never felt any cheaper and smaller than the time when, even after losing to Fujiwara's AE86 therefore failing to keep his end of the deal, Nao still managed to, not only not break up with him, but also to allow him to carry on with his racing.

For this reason, and even though he could no longer ask the shop for credit, he decided that he would not go to Nao for the money he needed to repair his Mazda roadster.

'Tohru-san, what are you going to do?' Shinichi asked as the two men stood in the garage where the heavily damaged red roadster was parked.

'I'll get it fixed, of course,' Tohru replied confidently.

'It's going to cost a lot of money…' Shinichi commented frowning.

'I've got to go, or I'll be late and Nao won't be happy,' Tohru said clearly avoiding the subject.

'Ah, alright, ' Shinichi said.

It took Tohru about twenty minutes to get to where his girlfriend of six years worked and, just as he was about to cross the road, he saw her walking out of the building with a guy who looked to be in his early thirties.

Probably a workmate of hers, Tohru thought but then, he saw as Nao cupped the guy's cheek with her hand as he stood way too close to her, at least in Tohru's opinion.

'Hey,' Tohru said as he approached the building's entrance. This made Nao remove her hand off the guy's face, making Tohru feel a bit more than paranoid.

'I'll see you tomorrow,' the guy said as he walked away from them.

'Sure, have a nice evening,' Nao replied in a very friendly tone of voice then, turning round to face Tohru, she smiled and said, 'hi Tohru, did I make you wait for long?'

'Who was that?' Tohru asked ignoring her question and trying not to sound as jealous as he felt.

'That's our marketing manager, Kobayashi-sempai,' she replied making Tohru frustrated since that didn't tell him what he needed to know.

'Are you this friendly to all your work colleagues?' he asked, still fighting to keep a neutral tone.

'No, of course not,' she replied laughing softly, 'it's just that he's going through a very rough time right now and needs someone to talk to…'

Tohru was going to ask something else when he saw Nao's lips curving into a smile.

'Are you jealous?' she asked looking rather amused.

'No, of course not, why should I be?' Tohru replied killing Nao's smile in the process.

'No reason, of course…' she said with just a hint of sadness imprinted in her voice, then, trying to brighten up, she said, 'so, where are we going?'

'Well, since I don't have a car we'll have to go somewhere close, what do you think if we go to the Bell Mall?'

'Excellent idea, we could go to the cinema in the East Annex,' Nao said looking much happier now.

'Great, let's go,' he said, trying to forget about that Kobayashi.

'How are you going to get the car fixed?' Nao asked as they made their way to the shopping centre.

'I'll manage, don't worry,' Tohru replied ignoring the inquisitive look his girlfriend was giving him.

'If you need…'

'Nao, I said I'll manage, okay?' Tohru said a tad too dryly.

'Okay, sorry…I…'

A very uncomfortable silence fell between the two of them and, by the time they got to the huge building complex which housed North Kanto's biggest commercial area, Tohru was beginning to regret being so nasty to her.

'Hey, which movie do you want to see?' he asked as they stared at the selection of films that were being shown at the cinema.

'Er…I don't know, why don't you choose? You know I'm not fussy…'

She always said that, Tohru thought, even if she knew he'd end up picking the movie she liked the most for, after all these years, he knew her tastes well enough to be sure his choice would be the right one.

'It was beautiful,' she commented as they walked out of the cinema after the end of the movie.

'I'm glad you liked it,' Tohru said happy to see her smiling.

'We could go for a walk around the shops,' she proposed.

'Okay,' he replied and that made Nao's smile widen making Tohru feel rather pleased with himself: he knew he wasn't the best looking guy alive but, he knew very well what to do to make Nao happy.

After all, making his girlfriend happy wasn't too hard for she usually settled for very small things: a nice movie, a bit of window shopping, a present for her birthday…

There was only one thing Tohru did that he knew it upset her: street racing.

Tohru's love for racing went all the way back to his junior high days when he used to spent most of his pocket money buying motorsport's magazines and sneaking out of his parents house so he could go to Momiji Lane to watch the cars as they raced each other.

By the time he started dating Nao, in their second year of High school, Tohru was already so much into racing that he barely spoke about anything else.

Things got even more intense the following year when he managed to get his driving license and, even more importantly, his first car: a very old, battered Nissan.

For the next three years, he didn't do much else than to practice hard with it until he knew every single detail of his home course then, after having saved up enough money, he bought himself his baby.

His Mazda Roadster.

He remembered the first time he drove it down the Momiji Lane as well as if it had been just the other day. The feeling of driving a new car was unforgettable. It was then when Tohru began to win race after race and when he joined the Seven Star Leaf street racing team.

It was shortly after that when he started having problems with Nao, mainly about the amount of money he spent on improving his car's performance.

The whole thing was very frustrating for Tohru who, up to then, he'd been used to having Nao listening to his every rant about his driving and his car. She hadn't even complained when he started being so short with money that he couldn't even take her out for a date because he'd already spent all his wages on a new set of tyres or buying some other part for the Mazda.

Things had started to change a couple of years ago when, as they got older, Nao began nagging at him about the fact that he didn't seem to think of their future.

The future.

Tohru just hated when she started talking about that. It wasn't that he hadn't thought of marrying Nao, it's just that, even though they had been together for over six years, to him it was a bit too premature to start talking about it. After all, they were only twenty three and they had plenty of time for them to settle down.

Right now, he only wanted to become a faster and better driver so, one day, he could challenge Fujiwara to a rematch and show him that he too could do fancy stuff.

His defeat to the 86's driver still stung and it had been a major blow on Tohru's pride. Getting so badly beaten on a course he knew as well as the back of his hand was the ultimate humiliation and, the more he thought about it, the more he was dying to get his car fixed so he could start practicing again.

That guy was truly amazing. How in the heck did he manage to do things like that and still look like a clueless idiot was beyond Tohru…

'Tohru? Hey…'

'What?' Tohru said getting back to reality.

'I asked you if you wanted to come with me next weekend,' Nao repeated patiently.

'Eh? Where?' he asked not even pretending he'd been listening to her at all.

'The exhibition,' she explained, 'there's a photography show at the gallery and I'd love to go and check it out…'

'Ah, yeah, sure,' Tohru said.

'Great,' she said smiling happily.

A few minutes later, Tohru was walking Nao back to her parents' house when she said:

'You know, I'm almost happy you don't have the car…'

'Why is that?' he asked frowning.

'Well, walking back home like this, holding hands and all, it reminds me of when you walked me back home from school…'

He chuckled and said:

'Yeah, it's kind of like going back in time, huh?'

'Yes…' she said with her voice loaded with melancholy.

They finally arrived at her home and, kissing her, he bode her goodnight and watched as she entered the house. He then started walking towards Atsorou's place.

Unlike Nao, Tohru wasn't at all happy about not having a car for it meant having to walk everywhere or, what was even worse, take the public transportation. In any case, after over half an hour, he finally made it to his team mate's house, spotting him in his garage as the man worked on his ER34.

'Hey,' Tohru said announcing his presence.

'Tohru,' Atsorou said coming out from under bonnet, 'how are you man?'

'I'm alright,' Tohru replied in a non-committal tone.

'How's your roadster?' Atsorou asked.

'Still crap, I've got to take it to the shop as soon as I get the money,' Tohru replied.

'Yeah, well, the important thing is that you're okay, isn't it?' Atsurou commented.

'I guess so,' Tohru said not sounding very convinced.

'Shall we go, then?' Atsorou asked as he finished off whatever he was doing to his car.

'Sure,' Tohru replied.

The two men drove to the top of Momiji Lane and parked the ER34 next to the rest of the cars belonging to the Seven Star Leaf team's members.

'Tohru-san, I didn't know you'd be here,' Shinichi said his face lightening up making Tohru think that he really needed to tell Shinichi to stop behaving like a fanboy.

'Would I miss any of the gatherings?' Tohru replied smiling at the younger man.

With Atsurou and Tohru's arrival, the team was complete and, following Atsorou's orders, everyone got into their cars and started practicing.

Everyone except Tohru, of course.

'Tohru-san, you can borrow my car if you want,' Shinichi said as he stopped his car next to his idol.

'No, thanks, I'll be alright,' Tohru lied for he really felt frustrated for not being able to have his car there so he could drift his way down the hill.

He watched as a very disappointed Shinichi drove away, took the first of Momiji's corners and disappeared from Tohru's sight.

'Hey, I heard what happened to you,' a guy, in his late twenties by the looks of him, said as he walked towards Tohru.

'Uh-huh…' Tohru limited himself to say.

'How are you going to do with the car, it's going to cost you a lot to get it fixed, isn't it?' the guy said making Tohru wonder why in the heck did people keep telling him what he already knew.

'I could help you out,' the guy said seeing that Tohru wasn't answering to his question.

'How?' Tohru asked sounding suddenly interested.

'Well, I have some friends who could lend you the money you need…' the guy replied.

'Who are you?' Tohru asked eyeing the guy suspiciously.

'My name's Shinya Uesugi,' the guy said.

'Right, and why would you want to help me?' Tohru asked still feeling very uneasy about the whole thing.

'Well, I'm a racer too, you know, and I saw the way you got beaten by that brat. I just hated to think you'd retire from racing because of, you know, lack of funds…'

Tohru considered a few things before saying:

'Okay, so, let's pretend I accept your help, how much interest would I have to pay?'

'The loan would be interest-free and you could return the money whenever you could…'

'Yeah, right,' Tohru said sarcastically, 'just how stupid do I think I am?'

'Hey, take it easy, I never said it'd come free of charge, you'd have to do something for us, of course…'

'What would that be?' Tohru asked.

'Oh, you'd just have to race for us a couple of times,' Uesugi replied then, producing a business card, he said, 'think about it and, if you're interested, give me a call…'

With this, Uesugi walked away from Tohru as he stared at the name and number printed on the card.

To be continued…


	2. Act 2

Pilot-tenkawa, jpn6438 and Yaohan: thank you for your reviews, I'm glad you're liking this one too. Yaohan, I'll have you to know that I did consider making this some sort of Extra Stage of Programmed Lives but I decided that since it really had nothing to do with that story line, I'd just make it a standalone fanfic...

**The One True Love**

_Act 2._

Tohru kept looking over to his bedside table as he lay on his bed unable to shut his eyes for more than five minutes. On top of that small table he had the perfect solution to all the problems that had been tormenting him ever since he'd capsized his Mazda.

If only he could shake up the uneasiness he felt about the whole affair, he would have called Uesugi the morning after the guy had given him his card.

Now, three days later, Tohru still didn't know how to get the money he needed to repair his car and, even though he was working almost double shifts every day, he doubted he'd make the money soon enough.

As he'd done every evening since crashing the car, he walked to Nao's job to pick her up when, instead of his girlfriend, he found that Kobayashi guy he'd seen her with.

'Hello,' Kobayashi said with a friendly smile, 'you're Nao-chan's boyfriend, aren't you?'

'Yeah,' Tohru replied using a monotone voice.

'She told me about your accident,' Kobayashi said, 'poor thing, she was so worried about you. I think you're lucky to have such a thoughtful girlfriend…'

'Yes, I know,' Tohru said feeling more and more edgy by the guy's presence.

'You know, you should be careful…'

'Why?' Tohru snapped.

'Well, she's very cute and she's always so nice to everybody, if you're not careful, someone may want to steal her away from you…'

Tohru was about to reply to that, probably by throwing a good punch at the guy so he'd learn to mind his own business, when Nao walked out of the building looking as though as she was in a rush.

'Tohru! I'm sorry, I had to finish a report for my boss,' she said.

'Don't worry, he hasn't been waiting for long,' Kobayashi replied instead of Tohru.

'Thank goodness,' Nao said looking very relieved.

'I'll see you tomorrow,' Kobayashi said and then, just as he started walking away, he added, 'we can try that new Italian place for lunch…'

Tohru was so shocked at seeing Nao nodding to that, that he didn't even manage to react on time, which was lucky for, if he had, he would have beaten the crap out of that asshole and that would have probably cost Nao her job.

'Let's go,' Nao said tugging him by his arm.

'So,' he started, refusing to take a single step, 'do you do lunch with him often?'

'What…er…'

'What's after the Italian restaurant? A fancy French dinner for two?' Tohru said without even realising that he was raising his tone of voice as he spoke.

'Tohru…'

'WHAT?' he said now definitely shouting. He noticed his hands were shaking with fury.

'It's not like that,' Nao half-whispered, 'it's just that…'

'Can't you see he's got the hots for you?'

'What? No, no way…'

'You know what I think?' he asked and, before she even had time to reply, he said, 'I think you like having a yuppie buying you meals...'

'No, Tohru, that's not true,' Nao said with a panicked voice.

'Yes it is!' he shouted, 'you women are all the sam…'

He couldn't continue for Nao, raising her hand, slapped him hard on his left cheek. Then, looking terrified of what she'd just done, she turned round and started running away from him.

'Nao!' he shouted trying to make her stop then, he saw something that made his blood freeze in his veins:

A car was arriving at a very high speed just as Nao was running across the road.

'NAO!' he shouted even louder but it was already too late. He stood there, feeling completely impotent as the car hit his girlfriend sending her flying over the windscreen.

His vocal cords lost the ability to produce any sounds as his legs, driven more by instinct than anything else, started running towards her immobile body.

Tohru threw himself onto his knees as he went to get Nao off the ground.

'Don't touch her,' a middle aged lady said, 'I'm calling an ambulance, I don't think it's a good idea to move her,' she explained as she put her mobile phone to her ear.

Meanwhile, a group of people started gathering around them, including the car's driver.

'I'm so sorry, she was just…'

Tohru looked at him and was about to get up to go and strangle him when he heard Nao moaning.

'Shush,' Tohru said as he started brushing her hair out of her face, 'an ambulance will be here soon…'

'I'm sorry…' she managed to whisper then she fell unconscious again.

Tohru barely remembered getting onboard the ambulance as the paramedics loaded the stretcher which was carrying Nao, he didn't even remember stepping into the hospital's E.R. or as a nurse blocked his way so that the doctors could take Nao into one of the treatment rooms of the Utsunomiya's city hospital.

He was then left on his own, dealing with all his pain and guilt, as he waited for whatever news the doctors would bring to him.

'Excuse me,' a nurse said walking towards him, not even five minutes after they had arrived, 'are you a relative?'

'I'm her boyfriend,' Tohru replied.

'Ah, I see, well, do you know any of her relatives? We're going to need them to sign some forms,' she said.

'Can't I sign them?' Tohru asked.

'No, I'm sorry, only a relative,' the nurse explained looking rather sorry for him.

'I'll call her parents,' Tohru said trying not to analyse too much what he'd just felt realising that he'd just been brushed aside for not being a relative.

He'd been in love with Nao for over six years. He loved her as much as he loved racing, maybe even more than that, and now, for all he knew, she could have been dying and the freaking medical staff would still want to speak to a relative…

He was so upset about it that he didn't even acknowledge it when the nurse thanked him.

Then, remembering he'd promised the nurse he'd call her parents, he walked towards a payphone and had the unpleasant duty to inform Mr and Mrs Nakazawa about their daughter's accident.

He saw them entering the E.R. reception area not even fifteen minutes later.

'Tohru!' Mr Nakazawa said seeing him there. The man seemed to be understandably upset.

'I'm sorry, I…'

'What happened?' Mrs Nakazawa asked after a nurse had promised her to send them a doctor as soon as possible.

Tohru didn't even know how to explain to Nao's parents about his and Nao's argument then, deciding that sooner or later they would find out anyway, he decided to tell them the truth.

Mr Nakazawa seemed ready to kill Tohru when a doctor walked up to them.

'Are you the relatives?'

Again that word, Tohru thought angrily.

'Yes, we're her parents,' Mr Nakazawa said.

'Alright, follow me, please,' the doctor said and, as Tohru was about to take a step forward, Mr Nakazawa looked at him and, with a very dry tone, he said:

'You stay here, you've already done enough damage.'

Tohru observed, feeling impotent for the second time that evening, as Mr and Mrs Nakazawa followed the doctor then, not really knowing what else to do, he just sat back down.

'Tohru,' he heard Nao's mum say a few minutes later, 'Nao's going to be fine, she's only suffered a mild concussion and has broken her arm. The doctor said it's a clean fracture so it should heal alright without having to operate…'

'I'm really sorry,'' he said feeling disgusted with himself since it seemed to him like Mrs Nakazawa was actually trying to make him feel better about the whole thing.

'I know,' the woman said, 'my husband is very upset right now, don't take notice of what he said but, just in case, I think it's better if you go home now. I'll let Nao know you were here…'

'But…'

'Please Tohru, just go home,' Mrs Nakazawa said with a kind smile. It was very obvious who Nao had got her gentle personality from.

'Okay,' he said.

Then, as he walked out of the hospital, he started feeling even worse, if that was at all possible, than the night he'd crashed his car.

How had he been so stupid?

Trying to think about the whole affair rationally, Tohru realised that Nao would never be able to cheat on him. No matter how elegant, how rich or how attractive a man was, Nao would always remain faithful to Tohru. He was sure of it.

Yet, for some reason, Tohru had fallen into Kobayashi's trap and had let his insecurity get the worst out of him and, because of all of this, Nao was now in the hospital and another thing Tohru was absolutely certain of was that, this time, there was no way on earth Nao would forgive him.

'Tohru-san?' he heard someone ask and that took him out of his reverie.

'Shinichi? What are…' he said seeing his team mate's green Nissan NX stopped just a couple of metres away from him.

'You're okay?' the young man asked.

'Yeah, well, no…er…'

'I'm going up to Momiji, you wanna come?' Shinichi asked with a hopeful expression.

Tohru thought about it for a few moments then, nodding, he said:

'Yeah but, do you mind if I drive?'

'No, of course not,' Shinichi said literally jumping out of his car holding the door open for Tohru.

As he drove Shinichi's NX all the way to the bottom of the Momiji Lane and there, Tohru started flooring the accelerator hoping to vent up some of his frustration by drifting through the corners as fast as possible.

'Tohru-san, is something the matter?' Shinichi asked with a slightly shaky voice.

'Nao's had an accident,' Tohru said with a flat tone.

'What?' Shinichi whispered.

'Shinichi, no offence, but I really don't want to talk about this now,' Tohru said and to prove his point, he made the car pick up speed as they reached the section of the course which had the lidless sewers.

It was there where Fujiwara had pulled the stunt that had made him win the race. It was also there where Tohru's problems started.

How had he managed to get his life to suck this much was completely beyond him. Theoretically speaking, he had what made most men happy: he had a steady job, a cute girlfriend a fast car and his passion for racing.

In practice, he hated his job for it never seemed to pay him enough to keep up with is expenses, he no longer had his roadster so he couldn't even race anymore and as for Nao, he'd probably lost her anyway.

If it weren't because the car he was driving wasn't his and because Shinichi was still inside the NX looking positively terrified, Tohru would have seriously considered driving himself down the cliff.

'Wow, you sure were inspired today…' Shinichi said as, looking very white and visibly trembling, he tried to get out of his own car.

'Sorry about that,' Tohru said realising that, because of his dark mood, he'd probably been diving like a madman.

'It's okay, I wish I could drive like that,' Shinichi said.

'No you don't,' Tohru countered, 'you'd kill yourself if you did…'

'Yeah, probably,' Shinichi said smiling sheepishly as he scratched the back of his head.

'Hello there,' that Uesugi guy said as he walked towards them.

'Uesugi, are you always here or what?' Tohru asked.

'Of course not, tonight I'm here because my friends wanted to get some practice,' he said pointing at a small group of people standing next to four very expensive looking cars.

'Tohru-san…' Shinichi started.

'Hey, why don't you go for a quick drive?' Tohru said interrupting his team mate.

'S-sure,' the young man stammered and then, looking slightly disappointed, he climbed into his NX and drove away from Tohru and Uesugi.

'So,' Uesugi started as soon as Shinichi had left, 'have you thought of my offer?'

Tohru swallowed and, after an instant, he said:

'Yeah.'

'Alright, do you have your answer?' Uesugi asked.

'Yes, I do. I'll do it…'

'Great, you won't regret it,' Uesugi said and, something in his attitude made Tohru think that he was probably making a huge mistake.

He didn't care though, as long as he could get back behind the wheel of his roadster, he'd be alright.

To be continued…


	3. Act 3

A/N: I've decided to make this a four-act story plus a bonus one which will work as some sort of epilogue. I hope this makes jpn6438 happy :p

I've noticed that not many people seem to be reading this, probably due to the fact that Tohru and Nao are not very well known characters. I don't really mind though because I've got the satisfaction of having given a bit of well deserved spotlight to this lovely couple.

For those who ARE reading this, huge thanks goes to you!

**The One True Love**

_Act 3._

It had been a week since Uesugi had got Tohru the money the young man needed to get his car fixed and, the morning after, Tohru had brought the car to the shop where, after being able to pay for the repairs in advance, the shop's owner had started working on it straight away.

Now that he had his car once again, he needed to focus on his second biggest problem: Nao.

It killed Tohru that, because of her father, he hadn't been able to see nor speak to his girlfriend ever since the accident. He hoped that her father's reluctance to let Tohru see his daughter wasn't due to the fact that, in reality, Nao didn't want to see him and was just using her father as a shield.

In any case, he was determined to see her that night so, once again, he found himself driving towards her place.

'You again,' her father said seeing him there, standing outside the door.

Tohru bowed and, keeping his head down, he said:

'Nakazawa-san, please, let me see her…'

'The answer is always no. Go away,' the man said with an arctic tone of voice.

'Please, I really need to speak to her…' Tohru begged and was seriously considering throwing himself onto his knees when he heard Nao's father closing the door.

'NAO! I KNOW YOU'RE THERE! NAOOO!' he shouted at the window which he knew belonged to the girl's room. Other than hurting his vocal cords, Tohru didn't get any results from that either.

He stood there for several minutes, shaking with fury, until he realised that he could stay there all night and nothing would change.

Tohru turned round and, kicking the house's gate open, he walked back to his car deciding that maybe, just maybe, it was time he started facing the fact that his relationship with Nao was over.

'No,' he muttered as he inserted the key inside the ignition, it wasn't over until one of them said it was and, so far, Nao hadn't told him anything and he as sure as hell didn't want to finish it.

He started driving home renewing his vow to try again the next day. Yes, he would keep trying to speak to her until her father would get sick of seeing Tohru at his doorstep.

After parking his car, he made his way to the house he shared with his parents and, just as he was getting his keys out of his pocket, he saw Uesugi there, waiting for him.

'Good evening,' he said and as usual, the guy's voice was enough for Tohru to feel uneasy.

'Hi.'

'Say, are you ready for a good race?' Uesugi asked.

'Tonight?' Tohru asked back.

'Yes, interested?'

'I've got to work tomorrow,' Tohru replied.

'Oh, don't worry, we won't take long, you should be home before midnight,' Uesugi said.

Tohru considered the whole thing for a few instants before deciding that maybe it was a good idea to start repaying the favour as soon as possible.

'Yeah, okay,' he agreed.

'Good, follow my car,' he said pointing at a red Mitsubishi 3000GT parked nearby.

'Where are we going?' Tohru asked.

'Momiji Lane, of course,' Uesugi replied with a smirk.

Driving behind the Mitsubishi, Tohru realised that Uesugi hadn't been lying when he'd said he was a racer for he really had a very refined style.

That and, the fact that Uesugi's 3000GT was a lot more powerful than his Mazda, despite of all the tuning he'd done to it, meant that Tohru had quite a few problems just keeping up.

Tohru was so concentrated on his driving that he didn't even have the time to notice that there were quite a few more people than usual at the galleries, especially taking in consideration that it was a Wednesday.

What he did notice was the dark blue Nissan S-14 which was parked at the mountain top's car park.

'Is that the guy I'm racing against?' Tohru asked the minute he'd parked the car where Uesugi had indicated.

'Yeah,' he replied then, taking Tohru by his arm, he said in a very low tone of voice, 'his car's more or less as powerful as yours and, even though I've been told the driver's not very good, it'd be very convenient for all of us if he won…'

Tohru breathed in sharply as he widened his eyes in surprise.

'Y-you want me to lose?'

'I see you're as smart as I thought you'd be,' Uesugi replied with so much nonchalance that it shocked Tohru even more.

'Wait, what…'

Uesugi shook his head and said:

'Be a good boy and don't ask so many questions. Just get in the car, drive as fast as you want but, make sure the Silvia gets to the finish line before you do, understood?'

'But…'

'Tohru, is anything I said not clear enough for you?' Uesugi asked making Tohru want to shout at him that nothing of what he'd said made any sense, instead, he just shook his head, 'good, because this race's worth a lot of money. You don't want to mess things up for me, do you?'

Tohru shook his head again.

'Good, now, get back in the car,' Uesugi ordered as poor Tohru finally understood everything:

Betting.

People were gambling on this race and Uesugi was involved into some sort of scam to make the bets go in his favour.

This explained the fact that the guy had given him a lot of money without even asking him to sign a single document. It also explained why all of his so-called friends seemed to drive extremely expensive, brand new cars, including Uesugi's own Mitsubishi 3000GT. For all Tohru knew, these guys could even be connected to the Yakuza and he was now at their complete mercy.

As he climed into his car, Tohru thought that he'd never been any more scared in his life, not even when he'd raced against Fujiwara.

'Shit,' he said as he felt his hand tremble so badly he had quite a lot of trouble inserting the key back in the ignition.

Taking a couple of steadying breaths, he turned on the engine of his red roadster and made it roll forward, parking it just behind of the dark blue Silvia.

'Hi, my name's Sorimachi Jin,' the S-14's driver, a guy around Tohru's same age, said.

'Suetsugu Tohru,' he replied happy to hear that, in spite of the sheer terror he was feeling, his voice was more or less as firm as his handshake.

Then the two drivers got back into their cars and, at the go, they drove out of the car park as fast as they could.

From his position aft of the S-14, Tohru saw that this Sorimachi guy was really a rather mediocre driver, very far from Tohru's level and light-years away from Fujiwara's.

As the Nissan cleared one of the course's fastest corners, Tohru swallowed seeing how freaking close the poor guy had been from losing control of his car, making Tohru brake so brusquely that his Mazda's bumper grazed the S-14's rear one.

'Fuck,' Tohru breathed as he slowed down trying to keep enough of a gap between himself and Sorimachi's car.

Remembering the not so veiled threat Uesugi had issued him just before the race, Tohru decided to stop pushing Sorimachi at all for he really thought that, if this guy kept driving as badly as this, it would be a freaking miracle if he finished the race in one piece.

Thinking he had to let someone as bad as that beat him on his home turf made Tohru feel so incredibly pissed off that he needed to use every single ounce of his self control not to floor the accelerator, overtake Sorimachi at full throttle and give him a lesson on how to drive Momiji Lane's downhill.

Unfortunately, he could not do any such thing so instead of that, he limited himself to just drive as safely as he could watching out in case Sorimachi made any potentially destructive mistakes.

Then it happened:

Half way through the race and while they were driving in the section where a wall delimited the right side of the road, Sorimachi drove his poor S-14 into one of the corners and, as he tried to drift his car through it, he lost control of his car's rear smashing it against the wall.

Tohru felt lucky he'd taken so many precautions for he was able to see the whole thing and still have enough time to avoid hitting the dark blue vehicle which now was right in the middle of the road.

He passed him and, braking as hard as he could, Tohru stopped his Mazda stepping out of it and starting to run towards where the S-14 was.

'Hey, are you alright?' he asked its driver.

'Yeah, oh shit,' Sorimachi said seeing the crumpled mass of metal the rear of his car had become.

Tohru felt the cold sensation coming back into his stomach as he realised that, by crashing the car, Sorimachi had actually lost the race.

'Fuck,' Tohru muttered and Sorimachi looked at him with a grateful smile. Tohru found almost funny the fact that the guy probably thought that he was trying to be sympathetic.

'Can you drive it back up?' Tohru asked.

'I think so, the engine is still running,' Sorimachi replied.

'Alright,' Tohru said and, with a knot tying his throat, he walked back to his Mazda and, as he climbed back into it he started considering his options.

He could run away. It wouldn't take much effort to re-start his car and drive away as fast as he could.

Yeah, he could do that.

'No,' he muttered as he listened to his more rational side: a guy like Uesugi would find him in no time and then, he feared the consequences would be much worse. For this reason, he turned the engine on and started driving back up, following Sorimachi's S-14 at an even slower pace than they had kept while going downhill.

A quick look at Uesugi's face as the guy looked at him while he parked his car made it clear to Tohru that the guy was beyond pissed off so, bracing himself against whatever he was about to face, he got out of the car and walked towards him.

Luckily for Tohru, Sorimachi decided to do the same thing too.

'Hey, bad luck, uh?' Uesugi said speaking to Sorimachi with his friendliest tone of voice.

'Yeah, this course's even harder than I thought…'

'What do you expect, you've only driven it a few times this afternoon,' Uesugi said, still being awfully nice to the S-14's driver.

'Yeah, next time I'll practice for longer,' Sorimachi replied then, turning to face Tohru, he said, 'thanks for this race.'

'No problem,' Tohru said while he felt Uesugi's eyes boring into him.

A few minutes later, and as everyone started moving out of the place, Uesugi grabbed Tohru by his shoulder pressing so hard that Tohru feared the guy would end up drawing blood.

'What in the hell happened?' Uesugi whispered angrily.

'He crashed,' Tohru said pointing out the obvious.

'Don't you think I could see that by myself?' he asked sarcastically.

'Listen, I did ev…'

'Quiet,' Uesugi started, 'do you have any fucking idea of how much money you've made me lose today?'

Tohru was about to say that he didn't know when Uesugi let go of him and said:

'Not to mention the fact that you've made the son of one of my best suppliers crash his car…'

'What? I…' Tohru tried again.

'SHUT THE FUCK UP!' Uesugi shouted and, for the first time, Tohru realised that, except Uesugi's friends, there was no one else left.

He swallowed as he tried to get rid of the knot in his throat.

'What are you going to do to fix this?' Uesugi asked him.

'I don't know, I…'

'Wrong answer,' Uesugi said, 'I really thought we could have a good business relationship here…'

'Hey, it wasn't my fault! When he crashed I wasn't…'

Tohru stopped speaking as Uesugi started laughing out loud, a cold, bitter and extremely nasty sounding laugh.

'Tohru, Tohru, Tohru,' Uesugi said once he stopped laughing, 'you don't seem to understand in how much trouble you are…'

'Uesugi, I…'

'I'm not going to waste anymore time with you,' Uesugi said, 'I want my money back by the end of this week…'

'What but…' Tohru started but then he saw three huge guys getting out of one of the cars.

'He's all yours,' Uesugi said to them, 'try not to kill him though: he owes me a lot of cash…'

'Uesugi, come on…' Tohru said pleadingly.

He couldn't say anything else for one of the guys who'd just climbed out of the car threw a punch at him sending him straight onto the ground.

Tohru tried his best to struggle as they picked him back up but, after the first few punches and kicks, he decided to remain still and hope that the thugs would remember that they couldn't kill him just yet.

To be continued…


	4. Act 4

A/N: Okay guys, last chapter. I'll upload the Bonus Act within the next few hours…

**The One True Love**

_Act 4._

By the time Tohru woke up, he noticed that he was no longer lying on the cold tarmac of Momiji Lane's car park but on a soft and comfortable bed. He also realised that he could only open one eye for the other one was covered by something.

As he brought his right hand up to his face to touch it, he heard a very familiar voice say:

'I think he's awake.'

Nao? What was Nao doing there? Where was he, anyway?'

He opened his mouth to start asking all of those questions but then he felt a piercing pain coming from his lower lip. It was probably split and rather swollen, Tohru thought.

'Shush, don't move,' Nao said soothingly.

Not being able to speak, Tohru decided to settle for the best next thing and grunted.

'You're at the hospital,' Atsurou supplied very usefully.

'It was so lucky Atsurou-san found you,' he then heard Shinichi add.

Finally able to focus his only functional eye, he saw his two team mates standing near his bed and his girlfriend sitting on a chair next to him.

'I heard from Junichiro that someone had organised a race last night and, since no one from our team had been informed about it, I decided to go and check it out,' Atsurou explained, 'imagine my surprise when I found you lying half conscious next to your car…'

'It was that Uesugi guy, wasn't it?' Shinichi said.

'What?' Atsurou exclaimed, 'you're not talking about Uesugi Shinya, are you?'

Tohru nodded making the SSR team leader swear viciously.

'Do you have the faintest idea of who he is?' he asked.

Tohru nodded again.

'Now I do,' he managed to whisper.

Atsurou looked at Tohru for a bit then, his face lightening up in realisation, he said:

'So, that's where you got the money to pay for the repairs…'

With a sigh, Tohru nodded once more.

'I'm sorry…' he said, this time looking at his girlfriend, who still hadn't said anything.

'You're in a shitload of trouble, do you know that?' Atsurou said.

'Atsurou-san,' Shinichi started.

'Be quiet,' Atsurou ordered, 'Tohru, this guy's really dangerous, he's got connections with the low levels. If you owe him money…'

'How much money did you borrow from him?' Nao asked making Tohru glace back at her.

'A lot,' Tohru replied happy to see that his voice was slowly coming back to him.

'Guys, can you please leave us alone for a bit?' Nao said talking to Atsurou and Shinichi.

'Sure,' Atsurou said taking Shinichi by his arm and leading him towards the door.

Dreading the disappointed look he was sure he'd see on Nao's face, he stared at the ceiling as though as if it were the most interesting thing ever.

'Why didn't you ask me for the money?' Nao asked and, strangely enough, she sounded more hurt than disappointed. This made Tohru look at her.

'Because I didn't want to,' he replied.

'Why not?' Nao said and now she definitely sounded upset.

Tohru sighed and, dejectedly, he admitted:

'Because I'm always borrowing money from you. How do you think this makes me feel?'

Nao looked at him as though as she failed to see his point.

'How come are you here anyway?' Tohru asked, more to change topic than for any other reason.

'Atsurou-san ran into Shinichi as he was driving you down from Momiji's Lane. They both took you to the hospital and Shinichi decided to call me this morning to let me know. I told Dad I needed to meet up with one of my work colleagues…'

'I've tried to see you so many times…' Tohru said.

'I know. My mum told me you've been trying to visit me but Dad's very upset with you,' Nao explained.

'Tell me about it…'

'I don't blame him,' Nao continued, 'he's very disappointed in you for not having asked me to marry you yet…'

'Nao…'

'I know, I know,' she said, 'you're not ready for that…'

'No, that's not it,' he said for it was true. He'd been thinking about it and, especially having been so close to lose her in more than one way, Tohru had grown to like the idea of settling down with Nao, 'I'd like for us to get married someday…'

'You do?' Nao asked looking positively stunned.

'Yeah but, I'm probably too late, am I not?'

Nao shook her head and, with a tiny voice, she said:

'No you're not. You've always known I'd wait for your forever…'

'Nao, I'm a disaster,' Tohru said and Nao shook her head again.

'Tohru, do you remember when you asked me out in our second year?'

'Sure I do, why?' Tohru replied not really understanding what this had to do with anything.

'I felt like I had won the lottery that day,' she said.

'Why?' he asked and that, for some reason, made Nao smile.

'You were so focused in your racing and your passion for cars that you didn't even notice anything else,' she explained, 'including the many girls from our class who had a gigantic crush on you…'

'What? Are you serious?'

'You see? Tohru, loads of girls found fascinating the fact that you were so heavily involved in street racing…'

'I bet you weren't one of them,' Tohru commented.

'No, I wasn't. I just liked you because I thought you were a really nice person...' she said.

'Yeah, I'm sure I've made you change your mind about that, huh?'

She shook her head once again.

'No,' she said, 'if anything, I think you're an even better person and I'm so happy you've allowed me to be by your side all these years…'

'Nao, I've been a nightmare,' he said frowning, 'I keep asking you for money and…'

'If I help you all the time is because I'm selfish,' she said shocking him in the process.

'Selfish? You?' Tohru asked disbelievingly, 'I've never met anyone as generous as you are…'

'That's not true,' she insisted, 'I'm selfish because I need you to need me. If you didn't need me, I'd feel useless…'

'Nao…'

'I don't even know why you're with me,' she continued, 'it's not like I'm spectacularly good looking or…'

'Shush,' he said raising his hand and placing his fingers on her lips, 'I don't want you to speak like that.'

'But…'

'Nao, you're a very special person to me. You're the only girl I know who can put up with me and still have the strength to smile…'

'I love you so much Tohru, I don't know what I'd do without you,' she said taking the hand he'd put in her lips with both of hers.

'It's me who wouldn't know what to do without you,' Tohru said trying his best to smile in spite of his swollen lips, 'we're so pathetically perfect for each other, aren't we?'

Nao laughed softly.

'We are,' she said.

They remained silent for a bit just looking at each other.

'How much money do you need?' Nao said breaking the quiet.

'Nao…'

She shook her head and said:

'Just tell me, please…'

'One and a half million yen,' he said unable to look at her.

'Okay,' she said.

'What's okay?' Tohru asked glancing back at her.

'I'll give it to you so you can give it back to that Uesu…whatever his name is,' Nao said.

'You have all that money?' Tohru asked surprised.

Nao sighed and said:

'I didn't want to tell you because I didn't want you to get mad at me but, I've been saving up for a while, hoping that we could use that money to get our own place someday…'

'Nao…'

'I don't have all that much saved but I've got enough to give you the money you need. I'll just need to work and save up for a bit longer now…'

'Nao…'

'Tohru, don't argue with me. Look at what's happened to you the first time you've tried doing things without me,' she said pointing at his numerous wounds.

'I'll give it back, I promise,' he said and then she shook her head for the umpteenth time.

'No, just promise me that you will try your best not to spend so much money in the car so you too can start saving up a bit.'

'You don't mind if I race?' he asked.

'Tohru, racing is part of who you are, if I asked you to quit, you'd only be half of yourself. I can't do this to you and you know it.'

He looked at her and, seeing the determination in her beautiful brown eyes, he said:

'Okay, I promise you I won't spend so much money in the car and that I'll start saving up too,' he said.

'That's all I needed to hear,' she said getting up and, placing a kiss on his forehead, she walked towards the door.

'Where are you going?' Tohru asked panicky for he really didn't want her to go anywhere too far from him.

'I'm going to get Atsurou-san and Shinichi, apparently Atsurou-san had some sort of plan to get back at whoever had done this to you…'

'They did?'

'Yeah, Tohru, you have very good friends,' Nao explained.

'I know,' Tohru said.

Three days later, Tohru called Uesugi.

'Hello?' he heard him answer the phone.

'It's me. I've got your money,' Tohru said, 'meet me at the car park in two hours.'

'Are you for real?' Uesugi said sounding very amused.

'Yeah, I'll give you the money and after this I want you out of my life and that of my friends, otherwise I'll let the galleries know what kind of scum you are,' Tohru said.

'Fine,' Uesugi said sounding a little bit less happy.

Since Tohru was still unfit to drive, he asked Atsurou to drive him up to the car park where, predictably enough, he found Uesugi with his gang.

'There,' he said handing him an envelope with one hundred and fifty ten thousand yen notes.

'You're brave coming here with only your mate,' Uesugi commented.

'He's not here with only his mate,' Atsurou said and, making a gesture with his hand, Tohru saw something like twenty or so cars driving into the car park.

'Ah, I see…' Uesugi said looking a lot less smug.

'Yeah,' Atsurou said with a very nasty smile on his lips, 'we don't want any of your business in Momiji Lane so, the next time we see you or any of your mates, we'll make sure you pay a visit to one of our cliffs, is that clear enough for you?'

'Yeah, very clear,' Uesugi said taking the whole thing very seriously.

'Good, because it's scumbags such as yourself who are ruining street racing,' Atsurou said, 'maybe, while you're at it, you should re-think your life…'

Uesugi and his friends were out of the car park in a matter of minutes.

'Thanks Atsurou, I owe you big…'

'Nah, just promise me that you'll come to us first if you need help. After all, we are a team, aren't we?'

'Yeah, that we are,' Tohru said smiling.

That night, Tohru realised that he was actually a really lucky man.

To be concluded…


	5. Bonus Act

A/N: Sorry it was so short but, I really didn't want to start another long story so soon. I will now get back to work on that humour fic to see if I manage to make it work as I want. If not, I'll drop it and I'll probably start working on Programmed Lives - Fifth Stage since some of you are crazy enough to want me to write it… :D

Till then, take care and thanks for reading this!

**The One True Love**

_Bonus Act._

From the moment they had climbed into their cars, Tohru had known he could do it, he had prepared himself extensively for this re-match and tonight, he and his red MX-5 Roadster would beat Takumi Fujiwara.

Tohru had wanted to start up as the chaser and, right now, he was delighting himself with Fujiwara's driving skills, checking out the different techniques the younger man applied according to the different sectors of the course.

To his immense surprise, Tohru found that he didn't have too much problems keeping up, he was just driving his usual, full throttle, kamikaze-style self and, in fact, he was closing the gap as he got ready to overtake the 86.

The lidless gutter section was the key to this whole race.

Thoru had trained himself very hard in order to master the technique which had cost him his first race with the AE86. This time, he'd be the one beating the younger man.

They finally made it there and, after drifting through a few corners, always making sure Fujiwara realised how extremely close the MX-5 was, Tohru made his move as they approached a right hand turn:

Shifting most of the weight of the car onto the left hand side tyres, he entered the corner using the impossibly small space the 86 was leaving then, as Fujiwara prepared himself to fly over the gutter, Tohru did exactly the same thing.

He allowed himself a small smile while thinking of the shock he'd probably caused to the poor Takumi.

Right after clearing that corner, and with both cars now travelling side by side, Tohru floored the accelerator to make sure he would enter the next turn, a left hand side one, a split second before the 86.

Then, showing to Fujiwara that the first attempt hadn't been just good luck, he flew over the gutter once more, clearing the corner before the 86, effectively overtaking him.

He then drove at an all-out speed observing with satisfaction that he was leaving the 86 behind.

'You were great,' Fujiwara said as they stopped the cars, 'I can't believe I've finally lost a race…'

'I know,' Tohru said trying not to look as smug as he felt.

'Well, it'll be a pleasure racing with you again,' Fujiwara said.

Tohru was about to reply to that when something really weird happened: he started hearing a very high pitched sound coming from somewhere in his head and everything became dark.

He opened his eyes and found himself in a familiar looking room.

A dream.

It had all been a dream, Tohru thought as he realised that the room he was in was the bedroom he'd been sharing with his wife Nao during their two year long marriage and, the high pitched sound was coming from the room next door where their three months old son slept.

'I'll go and check,' he said to his half asleep wife, 'you just sleep some more…'

'Thanks sweetie,' Nao mumbled as she went back to sleep.

He got up from his bed and, stepping into his baby son's room, he took him out of his cradle and said:

'Hey, you know what? Your daddy has just had a very weird dream…'

Tohru then proceeded to explain in full detail what he'd dreamt of, hoping that, someday, his son would manage to make all his dreams come true.

The End.


End file.
